Dr Mazen Rantisi, a 71-year-old Palestinian physician popularly described as the “doctor of the poor”, says he has suffered physical abuse and medical neglect since Israeli authorities detained him more than a month ago, Haaretz reported on Sunday.

The doctor, known for often waiving fees, supplying medicines and operating a clinic that serves as a refuge for low-income Palestinians, was detained in a pre-dawn raid on his home in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on 21 June. Prosecutors later indicted him for serving as chairman of the board of the Union of Health Work Committees, a Palestinian non-profit that provides medical care to thousands of Palestinians each year.

According to the report, Rantisi told a lawyer from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel that prison authorities withheld his regular medication for the first 10 days in Ofer prison and are still denying him one of his medicines.

His requests to see a doctor went unanswered, and a medic checked his pulse only once through a small opening in the cell door.

Rantisi also reported physical violence, saying that said the prison units raided his cell several times a week and beat detainees.

“The younger prisoners surround me to protect me, taking the beatings themselves,” Rantisi said, adding that the guards sprayed tear gas into the cell during one raid, leaving him struggling to breathe.

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